Beyoncé Releases Surprise Self-Titled "Visual Album"

Features Jay-Z, Drake, Frank Ocean, Blue Ivy, more

One more surprise release before 2013 winds down: a new self-titled Beyoncé album appeared minutes ago on iTunes. It's a 14-track set described as a "visual album"—the record also comes with videos for each song, and at this point, you can only buy it in a single package but iTunes says individual tracks will be available for purchase on December 20. Beyoncé, her fifth studio LP, features guest spots from Jay-Z, Drake, Frank Ocean, and Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Update: There's a preview of each of the music videos for the album on Beyoncé's YouTube—watch below. The full writing and production credits are also available on iTunes along with the album, and they've got some interesting surprises.

In addition to credits across the album for Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Terius Nash and Hit-Boy, there's a writing/production credit for Chairlift's Caroline Polachek (on the song "No Angel"). Drake and his house producer Noah "40" Shebib teamed up to write/produce "Mine", which features Drake. There's also a guy simply named Boots credited on a number of songs.

The list of video directors is similarly broad in range: everyone from Hype Williams to Terry Richardson to Twitter mini-celeb and seapunk originator @LILINTERNET is on there. Find the full list of video directors after the album tracklist.